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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Your Muslim Supporting DOJ At Work

Glad to have that whole Blank Panther voter intimidation business behind them the Department of Justice has moved on to bigger game. The civil rights division has launched a lawsuit against a Chicago school district for denying a teacher three weeks off to go on the hajj.

In a civil rights case, the department said the school district in Berkeley, Ill., denied the request of Safoorah Khan on grounds that her requested leave was unrelated to her professional duties and was not set forth in the contract between the school district and the teachers union. In doing so the school district violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to reasonably accommodate her religious practices, the government said.

To me the case is a fairly simple one if a judge or a defense attorney asks the following questions.

1) By reasonable religious accommodations does this extend to teachers who may bring religious symbols such as crucifixes attached to necklaces or wearing of a Star of David?

2) Has any other teacher been denied time off to attend special religious observances such as visiting the Wailing Wall or trip to Jerusalem?

Is it unreasonable for somebody to take a 3 week leave of absence? Not really. Think of somebody recovering from a medical condition or a somebody taking time off after the birth of child. The difference is that in most cases the person is physically incapable of performing their job. This is a lot different from being denied time to attend an annual event.

A commentator on the Fox news story also pointed this out.

The Hadj is not based on the solar calender, it is based on a lunar calender. Hence, the Hadj she wishes to attemd will happen in the summer, during the school's summer break, just lik eit did this year.

If the woman used the skills she shold have learned whilst aquiring her teaching certificates, she should have been able to figure this out.

Hopefully somebody will point this out to the clueless DOJ, not that it will matter, but hopefully it is brought up if this thing actually goes to trial and the school district doesn't cave to the blackmail.